9 of the Best Free HTML Template Resources for Beginners
Published August 26, 2019 by Bryan Miller
While web design and coding is not everyone’s strong suit, it’s important to understand that a website is needed for every company. Many prospective customers only or primarily shop online, which means that you won’t have access to these customers unless you build an online presence for your company or brand. If you don’t have any experience with web design or coding, there are numerous services that help with this process, which extends from hiring a developer/coder to do the work for you to building a website from a pre-made template.
These services give you the ability to create an online presence without needing to do much or any of the work yourself, which should help you avoid making costly and time-consuming mistakes. If you want to have direct control over how your website is designed, there are also many DIY website solutions out there for you to select from. However, these solutions are typically not as robust as custom solutions that create every site feature from scratch, which means that they might not meet the needs of a sophisticated business.
However, they can do a great job of providing your business with an inexpensive option that allows you to begin your web presence prior to investing in a more strategic and custom-built website. When you want to build your own website, polish your coding technique, or learn how to code altogether, you might want to think about using free HTML templates for beginners. Each of the following nine templates are easy-to-use and will help you understand more about coding and building a website.
1. WordPress Themes
WordPress is a highly popular content management system that allows for easy creation of a beautiful website that matches your brand and business. While WordPress is PHP-based to allow for the development of dynamic website components, the front-end layout that site visitors will see when they enter your website is built primarily in HTML, which is a static code that’s much easier to learn.
WordPress provides an expansive library of templates that come in many different styles and can be fitted to an array of different types of websites. These templates are beginner-friendly because many of the elements of the template have already been designed. All that’s required of you is to customize the elements that you want to change based off of the theme that you choose.
Each template on WordPress includes detailed instructions on how to customize every element, which includes everything from adding your logo to adding homepage content. To install one of these templates, go to your WordPress admin area and select your theme of choice. Once you choose to download this theme, the files will automatically be downloaded to your web server. From here, you can begin to customize the theme to your liking.
The main features that are implemented into these themes include a quick and intuitive editor, basic SEO, and the ability to upload and embed all kinds of media. The template library available through WordPress is comprehensive, which means that all types of companies can use one of their templates.
2. Creative Commons Licensed Templates
Creative Commons is a kind of copyright license that can be applied to many different types of industries and products. When you purchase a Creative Common design template, the license states that you can use the template for free as long as the creator of the template is credited somewhere on your website. From here, you can choose one of thousands of different site templates that can be fitted to your website. These templates are highly varied and are usable for everything from simple blog websites to complex eCommerce sites.
Almost every template is outfitted with a responsive design and comes with such features as parallax scrolling, online chat functionality, gallery implementation, and appointment booking. Once you’ve found the template you’re interested in, you can purchase any extra features that you want and should be able to easily edit the template once it’s been downloaded.
Keep in mind that these templates can be applied to many different content management systems like WordPress and Shopify depending on the exact template you choose. The installation process for your theme of choice depends on which CMS the theme is compatible with.
3. Weebly Website Builder
Weebly is a website builder that offers free templates to help you create your website if you don’t have a large budget. All of the template designs that they provide are wholly customizable, which ensures that the final design of your site is unique when compared to competitor designs. The tools that they offer alongside these templates provide you with the ability to grow the website as your business grows. Their website templates are designed primarily to be used by eCommerce businesses but are available for blog sites and smaller business sites as well. All of their themes are implemented with responsive functionality as well as a bevy of other features.
The drag and drop builder that they offer for site creation means that you can implement site features in seconds. Some additional features available to you include an image editor, advanced animation effects, site search, custom HTML, custom fonts, and video backgrounds. To install one of these themes, all you need to do is select your preferred theme, choose your site address, and register your domain. Once you’ve taken these steps, you’re ready to build your website from the site dashboard.
4. Webflow Templates
Webflow is a fantastic template provider that offers free website templates for blogs, businesses, or personal use. Once you select a template that you like, it can be fully customized in Webflow without requiring you to use any code. As such, installing the theme is automatically done once you select it and fill in some basic information.
They offer extensive guidelines and tutorials that can assist you in using their site editor, which makes it easy to design a website. Most of the templates that they offer make heavy use of imagery, which allows for a more modern design. Some of the features available to you when building your website include content management, a responsive design, web fonts, dynamic content, and symbols.
5. Colorlib HTML & Bootstrap Templates
Colorlib is a template provider that offers many fantastic HTML and Bootstrap template designs. The 600 templates that they have on hand are highly varied and can be used by everything from interior design firms and hotels to law firms and eCommerce sites. All templates come with several tags that indicate which business the template is best used for.
The free themes that they offer are designed to be used in conjunction with WordPress. When you select and download a theme from Colorlib, it will be installed on your computer in a zip file that you can upload into your WordPress account, which will allow you to design your website from this easy-to-use CMS. Because these templates are created by many different designers, the feature-set that you’re provided with depends entirely on the specific template you choose.
6. StyleShout HTML5 & CSS3 Templates
StyleShout offers hundreds of HTML5 and CSS3 templates for free. The templates that you can select from StyleShout are all designed to be modern, stylish, and simplistic in appearance, which allows for quick loading no matter the site features you implement. Since these templates are made by separate designers, the ease-of-use depends on the template of your choice.
However, they all come with clean code, which ensures that customization is simple. Possible site features available with these templates include video support, call-to-action buttons, and testimonial sliders. These templates are mainly designed to be used by small businesses. When you want to install the template of your choice, you’ll need to download it to your computer before uploading it to the web host that you’re currently using. These themes are typically designed to be compatible with a variety of content management systems as well, which includes WordPress.
7. Ucraft Website Builder
Ucraft Website Builder is a free website builder that provides busy creatives with the ability to design their own website in very little time. If you have a domain, it can be quickly connected to any template. Their free website templates are mainly designed for businesses that are focusing on lead generation. All templates that they offer use their website builder that supports drop-and-drag functionality for easy website creation. Once you’ve chosen the right template, you’ll be able to design it entirely from the Ucraft website. When you’re editing your website, you can implement everything from image sliders to contact forms at the click of a button.
8. Strikingly Website Editor
Strikingly is possibly the easiest website editor to use on this list. All of the templates that they offer can be edited through the Strikingly website. Once you’ve finished editing your chosen template, it can be published instantly. It’s possible to create a website using one of their templates in as little as 30 minutes.
Most of the free template designs that they offer focus on beautiful imagery and colorful designs. The free template that you choose will provide you with a free Strikingly domain, unlimited sites, 5GB of monthly bandwidth, and the ability to create a simple store. This is a great template provider for eCommerce businesses since the eCommerce features that they offer are automatically built in, which isn’t the case with many template providers on this list.
9. IM Creator Free Website Builder
IM Creator Free Website Builder is a free website builder that’s been used to create more than 17 million websites worldwide. Every template that they offer is beautiful, powerful, and optimized to provide you with results. When you choose one of their templates, you can design your website on IM Creator via a simple drag-and-drop editor.
Along with being able to design, build, and publish your website for free with their templates, you’ll also be provided with unlimited bandwidth and unlimited hosting. The many features available to you when building a website include SEO optimization, easy editing, responsive functionality, animation effects, and eCommerce functionality. Each template is also scalable, which means that every business can benefit from the free templates available at IM Creator.
Conclusion
Web design and development can be a long and tedious process if you don’t know what you’re doing. However, with the help of any one of these 9 HTML templates, you can create and design your own website even if you have very little or no web development experience. If you’re having difficulty determining which of these templates is right for you, the different feature lists should help you make your decision.
If you’re interested in creating a professional website design that’s built for performance and is aimed at boosting your business revenue online, contact us today at Bryt Designs to schedule your first consultation. We want to help you design the perfect website for your business and brand.
Bryan Miller
Bryt Designs
Bryan Miller is an entrepreneur and web tech enthusiast specializing in web design, development and digital marketing. Bryan is a recent graduate of the MBA program at the University of California, Irvine and continues to pursue tools and technologies to find success for clients across a varieties of industries.
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